Cliff jumping Cliff falling (is there a difference?)

and so things went on. started work and work and more. I wake up every morning in the cold and dark around 5.30, eat and dress, leave for the bus which leaves at 6.25 and is at least a 20 min walk away. then an hour bus ride and im at work at 7.30am, work until (hopefully) 16.30and then the bus is again at 5pm where i get home at 6.

This would be a really terrible life if i didn't like work. but it turns out that work is really one of the best ways to pass your day here. Someone who works for lift operations is inevitably someone who is mad about skiing or snowboarding, who loves to be outside in the good mountain air enjoying the exquisite mountain views. Most people I work with are, firstly mostly male, and secondly are quite a bit of fun. There are lots of things to do (like shovelling LOTS of snow - you should see my growing guns!) but riding the mountain as much as possible is the main goal of the general crew and that is focused on daily. How much riding around the mountain can we get and still count it as "work". No it's not always frivolous funtimes. Often it's tedious. I will stand "loading chairs" for hours in the cold. To amuse myself i shout random things at the skiers getting onto the lifts, which includes general wooping noises, singing them a song that's in my head at the time, telling them they look silly and saying good morning in all the different languages i know to say it in. Most Americans in this case will give me a confused look and will answer me with a timid "Howdy" where i will reply with my best Southern American "Howdy" they have ever heard, they are then whisked away by the chair lift and I stay, ready to amuse myself with the next crew.

And it rains on this lovely mountain. i didn't believe it when one morning the mountain was packed full of people enjoying

a wondrous snow day and then later apparently we were attacked by the breezes of the Pineapple Express which lead to rain on a high snowy mountain. I thought the Pineapple Express was a stoner movie but apparently it actually is a real term for warmth hitting the Oregon area in the mid of winter from Hawaii. SO there we were on a freezing mountain with lots of snow and then the heavens opened and it poured with rain and we got to wear our blue smurf raincoat suits. Which was fun in the beginning as most of the skiers left and i started singing "It's raining men" to the amusement of the final wet skiing stragglers but it wasn't fun when i realized that powdery snow, once rained on, is horrific to snowboard and i face planted many more times than i desired.

And then i fell off a cliff. Well, no these stories aren't related at all unless you see the link between work and snowboarding with work and snowboarding. A few days ago i was on a ride break (by law we have to take an hour a day to go snowboard... ) and i was feeling very strange riding that lunch break. I got off the main lift (Mount Hood Express) and after a few metres i hit my edge and face planted horribly in the snow. I get really upset when i hit my head on anything, i don't know what it is but the emotions just start running in so I was feeling a bit fragile when i dusted my goggles off and continued for a few metres when WHAM it happened again. I didn't know what was wrong with me but i dusted myself off for the second time, had a firm talking to and continued. "I need some trees" i thought as i veered right into some good looking plant

s to shift through. I didn't know this section of the mountain at all but i figured if there were tracks that other people had made, it would be fine. Having this justification in mind i rounded a corner and then suddenly i was in the air, and i was falling falling falling very fast. There was not a moment when i even could have anticipated this fall before i landed with a crash in some small tress at the bottom and looked up at the cliff i had descended from. It was a good 5 or 6 metres up. No small little jump but a big crash from a cliff that if i had seen it before i fell off it i would imagine certain death with falling from it. In seeing it i started to scream as loudly as i could. I wanted someone to find me and take me away and send me home early and tell me i was ok. After some loud screaming with no one around i realized that actually, actually i was ok. My knee was throbbing in tremendous pain but my brain... well my brain felt alright honestly.

I finally saw a skier go past and screamed at him for help but in my utter ridiculous frenzy i found myself furthermore realizing that really, i was ok and i needed to just go back down and let them no i wanted to go home from work. I gingerly snowboarded down with a very painful knee and rushed into lift operations looking for a sympathetic face. I didn't find it. I was told that i need to be careful on ungroomed runs and that Mount Hood is full of cliffs and creeks and i should be careful but "cliffs are really fun when there's more snow, don't stop jumping cliffs". Not the reaction i expected but a good one nonetheless to keep in mind. Lifties are a crazy breed, they jump off rocks and injure themselves horribly then they show off about it and do it again. Falling off a cliff is not a tragedy but something which gives you some sort of credit.

nevertheless my knee enlarged to double its size with a pretty slice through the middle from some rocks and I've been limping around for a couple of days and after i sort of calmed down, i went back to work and became simply very grateful that i got away with not much to complain about. And i have learnt to respect the mountain a lot more than i have done before. Too often we become blase about what the earth can do, well too often I become blase about these things. I have learnt to respect the Ocean through many sojourns and now i have learnt to respect the mountain.

However, since i got injured the world seemed to align itself as i have spent the last couple of days in the top station of the lift which involves sitting in a warm box, with an incredible mountain view, making sure no one has trouble getting off the lift and fixing the ramp every half hour. Which means i have been sitting somewhat on top of the world, resting my knee, knitting and listening to music while getting paid for it.

So i am grateful that i am alive, i am grateful i can knit and i am grateful that i am warm and getting paid to do all this and more

Life i love you